PATIENT PARTICIPATION

As part of the NHS changes, the Government wants patients to be more involved in working alongside practices to provide feedback about the service provided to patients, in terms of access, communication, environment etc, and to help make decisions about future strategy.

This practice has been lucky to have an active patient participation group for the last few years but we now want to involve more people and are looking to do this in two ways:

Firstly, we want additional patients to become involved in the Patient Participation Group; either by attending meetings (which are every couple of months) or by corresponding with us electronically. Amongst other things, these patients will approve our occasional patient surveys before we send them out, to make sure we ask relevant questions in the right way. They’ll also be asked to look at the survey results and make sure that any changes we make are appropriate.

We also want to recruit a group of patients who are willing to complete surveys for us and send them back, electronically.

Over the next few months, we’ll be directly approaching some newly registered and existing patients to ask if they’re willing to set aside a small amount of time to work more closely with us.

If you’d like to become involved, don’t wait for us to contact you!

Give us a ring, or complete the attached contact form and return it to us and let’s get started!!!

Note: Whilst we welcome nominations from all our patients, we are trying to build a group that is representative of the patient list as a whole. To this end, we may not be able to include you on the Patient Participation Group immediately but, if not, will keep you informed of developments and register you as a member as soon as a vacancy exists.

Q What is a Patient Participation Group?A This is a group of volunteer patients who are involved in making sure the surgery provides (as far as is possible) the services its patients need.

Q If I join the Group, what will I be expected to do?A Discuss various issues with us, including the way the practice works; help us decide what survey questions we should be asking our patients, and help us make sure we respond appropriately to the survey results.

Q How often would I need to be involved?A If you want to join the Patient Participation Group you could come along to meetings (held 2 – 3 monthly on a Monday afternoon) or be a “virtual” member, who corresponds with us electronically.

Q I’m happy to complete survey forms but don’t want to join the Patient Participation Group. Is that OK?A Yes, we need one group of patients who are willing to participate in our surveys.

Will my doctor see this information?A This information is purely to contact patients to ask them questions about the surgery and how well we’re doing and to ensure that changes we make are patient focussed. If your doctor is responsible for making some of the changes in the surgery they might see general feedback from patients.

Q Will the questions you ask me be medical or personal?A We will only ask general questions about the practice, using short questionnaires and possibly other means.

Q Who else will be able to access my contact details?A Your contact details will be kept safe and secure. They will only be used for this purpose and will not be shared with anyone else.

Q How often will you contact me?A At the moment, we can’t be specific, but it won’t be very often. We may, for example, want to send out a couple of questionnaires a year but, if there’s something specific that’s a big topic and affects us all, we may need to contact you more frequently for a short period of time.

Q What if I no longer wish to be on the contact list of I leave the surgery?A If you decide you no longer wish to be on the contact list, you’ll need to let us know (in writing or by Email) and we’ll delete you from our list. Likewise, only patients who are registered with the surgery can belong to the group, so if you’re moving you need to write and let us know that you’ll no longer be involved with the Group.

If you'd like to join our Patient Participation Group (either the group that meets regularly or as a "virtual" member, by email, please click the link below to download the sign up form. Once completed, return it to us and we'll be in touch shortly after we receive your form!

Please note that no medical information or questions will be responded to.

Many thanks for your assistance

The information you supply us will be used lawfully, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The Data Protection Act 1998 gives you the right to know what information is held about you and sets out rules to make sure that this information is handled properly.

Sign up for our Patient Survey Only

Please download, complete and return the form to the surgery if you wish to only take part in our patient survey and not be part of the Patient Group.